It’s time to meet another one of the amazing volunteer Radvocates who hold space and offer unconditional support on our national toll-free Talkline. This month we introduce K.C., who joined Backline in 2013 as part of the inaugural Bloomington Talkline Advocate team!

How/when/why did you first get involved with Backline? 

I started training in September of 2013 with the first round of Hoosiers. A friend in Alabama stumbled across the callout for advocates in Bloomington. Knowing I’d just moved there, she sent it to me. I think I called Shelly during my first week in Indiana. Backline seemed like a great way to connect with other RJ-oriented people and to learn more about providing tangible support to folks across the spectrum of pregnancy, which I’d been itching to do for some time.

What has surprised you most in your work on the Talkline?

I’ve been surprised by how deeply this work influences the ways I interact with people in my personal life. Non-judgmental, non-directive peer counseling skills are applicable in all of my relationships!

What’s your favorite thing about being on the Talkline?

It’s a huge responsibility and privilege to hold space for someone on the other end of the line. Of course we train extensively and work hard to develop ourselves as advocates, but if at the end of a shift all we’ve done is listened well to callers… darn it, that really means something. There isn’t enough of that happening in our world.

 Tell us something about yourself that might surprise your Backline colleagues.

Oh gosh, I feel like I’ve been an open book with the Hoosier Raddies! One thing I’ve been fantasizing about lately that sort of surprises me is: buying land and building a small house here in central Alabama. I’m pretty terrified of home ownership, but I’m thinking on it and weighing my options for the long-term possibility of sticking around this region. Big kid decisions! I should probably lock in a job first…

What is your favorite thing to do for fun?

I am happiest when I’m on a road trip involving quality time with a loved one, tent camping or sleeping in the car, making coffee outside in the early morning, visiting state and national parks, and enjoying unique places all over the country, but especially in the deep south and southwestern US.

If Backline’s mission were achieved and all people had the support and resources they needed for pregnancy, parenting, abortion and adoption experiences, where would you volunteer your time?

I’m super interested in end-of-life care and support, so I’d probably find a way to work on those issues. I’m intrigued by death midwifery and home funeral guidance, so I might pursue something like that. I’m also interested in folk cultures of the south and southern Appalachia, so maybe something related to folk arts – engaging people in the area with traditional foods, medicine, dances, and music.

Thanks for being so rad, K.C.!

1. Why not Indiana? Indiana needs love! So often Indiana gets overlooked in conversations about reproductive justice, educational policies, social welfare programs, affordable health care, and so many other issues. Even among red states, Indiana is often forgotten. We believe that Hoosiers (and all people!) deserve a safe and inclusive place to go for their pregnancy and parenting turning points. It’s time for us as Hoosiers to show the world that innovation in reproductive justice can start in Indiana.

2. All-Options is an approachable access point for anyone who wants to get into reproductive justice work. Living in the Midwest and a red state means that opportunities to do RJ work are extremely limited. All-Options is a place where volunteers from all walks of life and backgrounds can dive into this work in whatever way they’d like. You can train to become an in-person peer counselor and/or Talkline advocate, you can greet people at the front desk, you can help us sort through donations of baby clothes – the list of things Hoosiers can get involved with is endless!

3. Southern Indiana needs open-minded and open-hearted  peer counseling and support groups. People often run into all sorts of judgment, stigma, and challenges in order to get any kind of support in Indiana surrounding a pregnancy turning point.  Just like on our Talkline, at All-Options there’s no limit to how many times a person can come to us, and there are never any hoops that a person has to jump through to get support. We’ll also provide tangible resources like baby clothes and diapers, free pregnancy tests and condoms, infant care packages and lots more.

4. We’re providing a physical space for pregnant people to get the local support and resources they need. It can be a challenge for Hoosiers to find resources that will give them some support. All-Options will be a place where folks can get connected or referred to crucial quality resources, whether they need financial assistance with their heat bills or need to know where they can get a free HIV test.

5. We believe that Indiana is a place where transformative reproductive justice conversations can happen. Whether you’re a native Hoosier or hail from another red state, it’s highly likely that a family member, close friend, or co-worker will express ideas or beliefs that push against your ideas about pregnancy, parenting, abortion or adoption. At All-Options, volunteers and folks seeking support alike can become radical communicators and learn how to have tough conversations with the people we care about with an open heart.

Bonus: Everyone can benefit from our Pregnancy Options Workshops! Together with our parent organization, Backline, we’ll periodically hold Pregnancy Options Workshops for southern Indiana. Our next workshop is on March 23^rd in Bloomington (if you’re in our area, sign up here!).

My journey at Backline started out as an amazing volunteer experience, when I first became a Talkline Advocate in 2007. In the past seven years, I’ve had the honor of talking with hundreds of people from all across the country and the opportunity to train and support more than 50 volunteer Talkline Advocates.

Backline is an organization like no other. We provide a space for people to talk openly and honestly about their experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption, within the totality of their lives and without fear of judgment or bias. You can trust that every time you call or interact with someone from Backline, you will be met with empathy, compassion, understanding and support.

When I talk about the work that we do on the Talkline, I am often asked who the “typical” caller is. I think that it’s a natural question to ask because we so often speak about these experiences in terms of statistics or these “other” people who are not us. But when I paint a picture of a Backline caller, I ask people to think about their mother, best friend, partner, child, co-worker, neighbor or even themselves, because the average caller could be any of us at any given time. We all have the potential to be impacted by experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, adoption, infertility, and pregnancy loss.

When I made the decision to move back to Indiana in 2012, we started talking about Bloomington as the pilot site for the All-Options Pregnancy Resource Center. My feelings ranged all over the map – from the heady excitement and elation of finally making this dream a reality to self-doubt about whether or not we would be welcomed with open arms. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with community members, health care providers, faith leaders, and educators about the Center, and the response across the board has been overwhelmingly supportive. People tell me that they are eager to challenge the red state stereotype that too often dogs this state, a stereotype based not on genuine Hoosier values, but on our conservative legislature that does not support all people, all communities, or all families equally.

Folks here are excited to put Indiana on the map for having the first ever All-Options Pregnancy Resource Center. They believe, like Backline does, that this goes beyond prochoice or prolife and comes down to being able to truly meet people where they are with dignity and respect, regardless of their pregnancy and parenting decisions and experiences. As a native Hoosier myself, there is an authenticity that comes in doing this work here that doesn’t typically happen on the coasts or places deemed “progressive.” You are forced to move beyond limiting labels and demonizing the other, because those others are also our loved ones, co-workers, and neighbors.

As in many red states (or any states!), there are also few places like Backline for people to give their time and energy. For our Hoosier Talkline Advocates, Backline has been more than a volunteer opportunity; it has been a place to build much needed community and connect to the reproductive justice movement.  As one of our newest ‘Radvocates’ Rachel said, “I’m so so SO thankful that Backline has expanded to Bloomington and Indiana. Backline has given me the tools to not only be able to listen and help others in their journeys along the entire spectrum of pregnancy experiences, but listen to myself. Through the Backline training process, I’ve found my voice.”

The work that we do is simple yet profound. We listen with empathy and compassion, and without judgment, bias or limitation. This is the power of radical and revolutionary change that Backline facilitates in our work every day on the Talkline, and what we look forward to creating at the All-Options Pregnancy Resource Center.

Backline is still fundraising to launch the very first All-Options Pregnancy Resource Center! Donate at https://www.crowdrise.com/all-optionsprc!

Board & Staff at Retreat 2014

We are particularly looking for board members who are committed to reproductive justice, will bring new perspectives and connect us to new communities (geographic and otherwise), and who have experience leading organizations through periods of rapid growth. We also strongly encourage applications from people who have lived experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and/or adoption.

Interested in joining us? Learn more and apply at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/backlineboard2014

Applications will be accepted until November 1st. We will be conducting interviews with selected candidates on a rolling basis, with the intention of seating new Board members in early 2015. Please share this invitation far and wide, and direct any questions to Board Treasurer, Sabrina Andrus at sabrina@yourbackline.org. Thank you!

Megan and Grayson celebrating 10 Years!

Last night in Portland, we celebrated Backline’s 10th Birthday at a fabulous party co-hosted by our founding President, Grayson Dempsey, and founding Vice-President, Megan Wentworth. It was a wonderful gathering of current and former Talkline Advocates and board members, longtime donors, and new supporters.

We shared stories about how we got involved with Backline, the impact that doing this work has had in our lives, and our dreams for the exciting opportunities that lie ahead. And we reflected that, even with all the ways Backline has grown and changed in the past ten years, the heart of our work has stayed the same – supporting people in all their experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption, without judgment, or bias, or strings attached.

In this 2007 interview in the Willamette Week, Grayson talks about Backline’s approach and her vision for changing the terms of the pro-choice debate. She talks about the need to broaden our focus to the whole context of women’s lives, and notes that there are too few places for people to talk about complex feelings about abortion. She even notes that crisis pregnancy centers have the potential to meet important needs by offering resources – like free diapers – that mainstream pro-choice organizations are not.

Today, as Backline celebrates 10 years of judgment-free support and we prepare to launch the very first All-Options Pregnancy Resource Center, it is inspiring to read Grayson’s words and see how our dreams today reflect a vision that goes all the way back to our roots.

To mark this milestone, we will be celebrating for the next 10 days, at happy hours and parties in locations around the country, and right here on our blog! We hope you’ll join us one way or another.

We’re kicking things off today with a Pregnancy Options Workshop & Messaging Training in Indianapolis with our friends at Reproductive Health Technologies Project, and then overlapping Happy Hours in NYC (6-9pm ET at Local 138) and Oakland (5-7pm at Kingston 11)! If you can’t join us in person, you can still leave a ‘toast’ or comment below!

Can you describe your work (paid, volunteer, life) for us? Give us the what, where, why, and how.

I am the Director of Birthparent Services at Adoption Connection, a nonprofit,
pro-choice, open adoption agency in San Francisco, California. I work with women and their families who are experiencing unintended pregnancies and are considering placing their babies for adoption. I provide case management, counseling services, referrals and liaison services between birth and prospective adoptive families. I also run workshops to help prospective adoptive parents learn about ethical adoption practices, build empathy for birth families and adoptees, and prepare for the bureaucratic and emotional requirements of the adoption process. I enjoy the delicate work of building bridges between disparate groups and communities to forge adoption plans that benefit the identity needs of the adopted child. I also advocate for abortion and parenting services for women who decide not to make an adoption plan.

I also moonlight as an on-call social worker for Oakland Children’s Hospital, the safety net trauma center for all children in Northern California. I love the fast pace of emergency room social work and the slower pace of helping grieving families cope with long term illness and treatment. The majority of families this hospital treats are MediCal eligible and from underserved communities. Working with these families in emergent situations gives me a new perspective when working with my birth and adoptive parent clients.

In my off hours I am a board member of the Seachange Program, a reproductive stigma reduction organization that aims to change the cultural conversation around abortion and improve access to all women seeking reproductive choice. I am also on the advisory board of Health Through Art, a community wide project providing the public with artistic expressions of mental health and creativity to counteract substance abuse, racism, violence and sexism, as it is taught and reinforced through unhealthy and pervasive media imagery.

To clear my head after all of this work I run trail ultra marathons, cook huge crockpots of New Mexican food, camp at hot springs, run off to Burning Man with my husband, play drums at pro union protests with BoomShake women and trans folks’ drum collective, read The Sun magazine and make stone fruit and yogurt smoothies to drink on my balcony.

What four words would you use to describe your role in the movement?

Evolving, compassionate, outraged and passionate.

Backline’s mission is to promote unconditional and judgment-free support for the full spectrum of decisions, feelings, and experiences with pregnancy, parenting, adoption, and abortion. How does our work resonate with you and relate to the work that you do?

I am so impressed and inspired by Backline. One of the truest statements I ever heard on the subject was in a Pregnancy Options Workshop Backline held, that it is the same women who choose to terminate pregnancies, parent their babies, and make adoption plans, depending on the timing and circumstances of their pregnancy. I see this over and over in my work – most pregnant women who call my agency have had experiences with abortion and/or with parenting. They happen to have a set of circumstances with this particular pregnancy leading them toward a particular choice, but that choice does not preclude them from being excellent mothers when they choose, or from obtaining abortions when they need to. Each client already has the right answer for her circumstance, but often needs the nonjudgmental support of a skilled listener to reach her decision with her mental health and sense of self intact. There are so many stigmas and pressures at play around each woman and her sense of choice, and I love Backline for providing the space for women to unpack their emotional knapsacks.

How do you see Backline as a contributor to your work and the work of the movement as a whole?

Backline provides such a great resource for all people struggling with reproductive choices and feelings, and also for counselors and therapists who attend their amazing trainings. I also wholeheartedly support the All Options Pregnancy Resource Center Backline is developing in the Midwest. There is a great need for pregnancy resource centers that provide a range of services and do not mislead and lie to women about their bodies, due dates, contraception and other pregnancy related issues. So many of my pregnant clients have gone to “pro-life” pregnancy crisis centers believing them to be medical facilities and have been given erroneous information about how abortion works and how far along they were.

What are your top three must-read blogs/sites/publications?

If I am totally honest here:

1. Facebook – I have some really smart, well read friends who do amazing work and post links to the best articles of the day and then hold spirited debates in the comments section. People make fun of my FB addiction but I learn a lot from the people I respect (and the people I don’t).

2. Bitch Magazine – a feminist response to pop culture. Smart off hours reading.

3. Salon.com – Great progressive investigative journalism, long form pieces, personal essays.

You are now a superhero! What is your name, power, and outfit?

IUD LADY! I have the power to blink once and provide instant IUD insertion for any person who requests it (with full informed consent, of course). My outfit is a red and black corset with an IUD chest shield, red cape, fishnets and black Fluevog boots because boots.

Thank you Rachel!!

print by Risa Cromer

What is Backline? I’m glad you ask. Backline is a non-profit organization that promotes non-judgmental, unbiased and unconditional support for people in all their decisions, feelings and experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, adoption, infertility and pregnancy loss.

What does that mean? If you’re a person who has had or are having any kind of experience with pregnancy in any way, shape, or form, and you have thoughts or feelings to process, we’re here for you. If you just found out you’re pregnant and you’re freaking out, we’re here to listen. If you had an abortion three years ago and you aren’t “over it” yet, we’re here for you to talk it out. If you’re trying to decide what your options are in your pregnancy, we can do options counseling with you. If you need to talk or process anything, we’re here for you. We’re also here for you if you just need info on finding ways to pay for your abortion. If you need some parenting resources, we can help with that, too. Backline is there to provide whatever support you need at the moment.

Read more over at http://girlofsolstice.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/why-i-love-backline-and-why-you-should-too/

Let’s meet another one of the amazing volunteer Radvocates who answer calls and offer unconditional support on our national toll-free Talkline. This month we introduce Jordanna, who joined the Portland cohort in 2011!

How/when/why did you first get involved with Backline?

During my first year in Portland, I volunteered with Planned Parenthood. They hosted their yearly Block Party and I was checking out some of the tables during my break and met Rayna at the Backline table. We struck up a conversation and I was impressed by her explanation of Backline’s approach to reproductive justice through the fundamental value of non-biased support. I was waiting to apply for Midwifery school and thought that doing some reproductive volunteer work in the meantime would bring me a lot of joy. I’ve always loved hearing people’s stories because I know that just having someone to listen to them makes a big difference. Everyone deserves support. Backline simply seemed like a perfect fit.

What has surprised you most in your work on the Talkline?

The calls. In our extensive training, we covered many types of calls, but there is nothing more raw than the emotional voice and detailed nuances of each story. Many of the calls I will remember forever, maybe because of the connection made, or the intensity of the emotions, or because of the frustration I felt with the number of oppressive forces that led to so many of the situations. In life I value what is authentic and thus the genuineness of each person’s struggle is very real for me. People are so strong!

I guess, second to the intensity of some of the calls, is that I am constantly inspired by the callers. In a situation where someone in need calls and I answer, I never expected to be so fulfilled, so helped and encouraged and strengthened by them. Most callers will never know that when we ended the call, I was so impressed by them in spite of their struggle, in spite of all the things people judge themselves on, because not only did they reach out for help when they needed it, but they are willing to do difficult things in life, for themselves, for their children, for their families. The calls have increased my understanding of the impact of unethical systems, lack of education and access, and unsupportive community, but it is the callers themselves who have produced a sense of optimism in me.

What’s your favorite thing about being on the Talkline?

Being an advocate for change. What Backline is doing is giving support to those who lack it. To be honest, I’ve taken calls that were hardly about pregnancy, abortion, adoption, or parenting at all. Maybe a call was about relationships, what it’s like to be a teenager, religious teachings, healing trauma, or finances. It doesn’t actually matter what the subject is — the bottom line is that people are seeking connection and support and that’s what Backline aims to provide. It’s the kind of service that deserves to be there for all sorts of topics, because many people are isolated and judged in their day-to-day lives, and don’t have a safe space to be open and talk. I’m beyond honored to be able to give time to those who need it. I want to be a friend who listens, reflects, and empowers, and I get to do that, even if for just 15 minutes. It satisfies the part of me that wants to make the world a better place, that wants people to know they’re loved. I know I’m giving what I can and that it makes a difference. What could be better?

Tell us something about yourself that might surprise your Backline colleagues.

For FIVE whole years, I wanted to be an Air Force pilot. This was before I realized that it might mean I’d be property of the US government and possibly BOMBING people — but I really wanted to fly the skies. These days, I’d settle for a 2-seater glider for a vastly reduced carbon footprint and for the fun of the scenic view (which is probably less surprising to those who know me :).

What is your favorite thing to do for fun?

Be in nature. Hiking, exploring, even gardening. I just want to be with the elements, observing, sensing, touching, tasting. Being in nature (especially with my sweetie) really nurtures me and makes me feel at home. It’s where I really want to be, most days. Give me the ocean, the underbrush, a birdsong, or an oak tree — I’m in heaven.

If Backline’s mission were achieved and all people had the support and resources they needed for pregnancy, parenting, abortion and adoption experiences, where would you volunteer your time?

I’d move on to the ethical treatment and care of animals and bioregions. Maybe I could volunteer with BARK, a local organization that defends and restores the Mt. Hood area (legally campaigning against timber sale), or maybe with a group working to improve the conditions of Zoo animals (or end zoos….). Something to benefit the earth! Maybe get more involved in blocking the Keystone pipeline.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I love the Backline community. The people who work for Backline, from the board, to our staff, to the advocates — I really love and appreciate all that they are and do. I feel really close with the group of us and am so deeply grateful for all the energy they put into being superb human beings! Keep it up, ya’ll!!

Thank you Jordanna!!